Preparation, characterization and application of magnetic Fe3O4/PEG nanoparticles immobilized with ferrous oxalate or ferric citrate for removal of bisphenol A from aqueous solution

The scope of our study was to prepare Fe-based highly active catalysts for water treatment processes. The reactive nanomaterials were synthesized by chemical precipitation; the post-synthesis coating of the as obtained nanostructures was achieved by capping the magnetic cores with a polymeric surfactant, polyethylene glycol (PEG). The resulted Fe3O4/PEG nanoparticles were further used to immobilize two types of reactive materials on their surface, either ferrous oxalate (FO) or ferric citrate (FC), yielding the final products – two green Fenton-like heterogeneous nanocatalysts. The sensitized catalysts were characterized by several microstructure characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometry, BET, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). All experiments were performed on a laboratory scale set-up. Important variables such as effect of hydrogen peroxide concentration, UV light, the amount of catalyst and contact time for the catalytic wet peroxide oxidation (CWHPO) of BPA were examined. The results indicate that the oxidation rate increased under UV light in the presence of low-concentration H2O2.